Steve Benen makes an observation:
According to GOP leaders, policymakers need to replace the $1.2 trillion in automatic sequestration cuts with some other, comparable cuts, and need to come up with $1.5 trillion in cuts in order to raise the debt limit. Both will have to happen at around the same time, no later than the end of February, and be independent of the $1 trillion in cuts Obama already accepted during the last debt-ceiling fight in 2011.
In other words, according to public comments from McConnell and Boehner, Republicans seriously believe President Obama must accept $2.7 trillion in cuts — without raising taxes at all — within the next two months. And if not, there will be an enormous crisis.
And what is it, exactly, that GOP leaders expect to cut by $2.7 trillion? Oddly enough, they haven’t said, but (a) Republicans apparently anticipate deep cuts to social insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security; and (b) Democrats are supposed to help Republicans come up with the list of cuts.
This won’t end well.
Probably the only reason that Speaker Boehner still has his job is that no one else wants it. The president has no intention of even answering the phone when Boehner calls about the debt ceiling. As for sequestration, the president doesn’t have to sign anything he doesn’t want to sign, and he won’t. The Republicans are asking for nearly $3 trillion in cuts. Let them put that in a House bill and try to pass it. It should be very amusing to watch them try.
Some in the hand-wringing sector of the left would say that is what scares them.
so remind me again who has the leverage here?
Boehner has said he’s done negotiating one on one with the President and will from now on just pass bills and let the chips fall where they may. I guess that means that all the cuts they want will now be in writing instead of spoken behind closed doors. The teahadists should come up with some real interesting stuff. I assume that Obama will also put his numbers out there for the public to decide which direction they like. I also expect Obama to reframe the debt limit issue: Do R’s really want to default? Or are they just giving us some theatrics?
That’s what puzzles me about the path GOP leaders are pointing towards. They’re going to grievously wound the US economy unless the Democrats help them pass slashes to the budget which will be INSANELY unpopular with EVERYONE, even the GOP base?
How, in the name of God, do they expect that to work? What an enormous, craaaazy gamble. How does that strategy give them leverage over the Democrats? If we help keep the Dems strong, we’ll win this.
I say all that with full knowledge of Obama’s Grand Bargain impulse. I’m also knowledgeable that he doesn’t have enough of the Senate with him to execute that impulse, and that he has been responsive to pressure on the budget and a number of other issues.
.
If GOP defaults on the debt, then the GOP is truly economic terrorist.
.
Is it Jones who voted for that super asshole Walker? Yeah, Walker was the Comptroller under Bush, and now has his hand down the pants and in the deep wallet of Pete Peterson. David pretends to be obsessed about the debt in a “bipartisan” way, but then the asshole endorsed Romney. So much for his public image…
To make it worse, in Walker’s public appearances it is clear he intends to come off as a moral scold. As it turns out, he’s a moral scold on behalf of the super moneyed class, not true budget repair. So, truly, fuck that guy.
What’s a guy got to do to get fired around here???
Who the hell would want the job?
That said, you could say the same thing about the Job of President.
I’m waiting for one of the MSM types to ask the obvious comeback to the TParty Republican talking point that the new tax hike on the top 2% will only cover about 9 days; with the answer of what single cut they are proposing that would match. If it’s such a measly amount in revenue, get specific on your cuts!
This is a different comment than just asking them to layout specific cuts going forward because it’s a direct response to that very annoying talking point and I’m real tired of hearing it tossed out with no comeback.
Just as Peter King had a lightbulb moment when he pondered why the general public would need assault rifles it’s time his party recognized there are no cuts in entitlements that clear public needs.
But then again, the Sandy debacle was the absolute perfect symbol of a do nothing, care less, unpatriotic party.
More like no one else could get the votes.
The final fiscal deal was a test of Boehner’s strength and he cruised through with a surplus of GOP votes. That minority of the majority thing is working well for Boehner.
I agree. I think they’ll raise all kinds of hell about whatever, but as long as stuff gets done without the majority actually having to support it by voting affirmatively, they’re cool with that. I think the plan is to let McConnell carry the water this session.
The Debt is a consequence of past Congressional actions. It is up to Congress to fund them. The reason it has grown is because they refused to fund past actions through taxation – the Iraq and Afghan wars being two prime examples.
So how is it now the President’s problem to find ways of funding those past Congressional actions? It is up to congress to either reduce expenditures, increase taxes or increase the Debt ceiling. If they do none of those things the President can invoke the 14th. Amendment and either ignore the Debt ceiling or mint Trillion $ Coins to pay for unfunded past wars.
Debt in a Time of Zero – NYTimes.com
Meh.
That’s $2.7 trillion in cuts over ten years! Congress will backload the cuts into the end of the 10 years. By the time the bulk of the cuts come due, the current members of Congress will be retired or dead.
The Financial Press has already started the noise machine that Social Security needs Chained CPI, and increase in retirement age and means testing. They will get it too. In March, Reid, Durbin, and Obama will explain that their hands were tied and they had to do it to prevent collapse. The Tea Party ran the last Congress. Wall Street runs this Congress,
You mean Booman will explain that Reid, Durbin, and Obama’s hands were tied and they had to do it to prevent collapse
No. Chained CPI and more means testing for Medicare are likely. No retirement age increase. Obama said that health care costs need to be restrained, and I see him proposing that the Medical Advisory Board that is part of the new health care law be strenthened. Not a few folks object to that effort, but, in contrast to what the R’s want, it will look attractive. Make the R’s offer up their cuts.
It looks simple to just cut reimbursement rates, but that leads to fewer and fewer physicians participating.
And it turns out that Obamacare has reduced coverage of Medicare as well. A friend whose wife is a nurse at an extended care facility was told by management in December that all non-generic medicine is being removed from their facility because Obamacare forbids Medicare to pay for anything but generics. This supposedly was part of the $700 billion savings.
They will get it too. In March, Reid, Durbin, and Obama will explain that their hands were tied and they had to do it to prevent collapse.
Is there a number of times this prediction turns out wrong that will lead you to stop making it?
Because we were totally going to get Chained CPI and an older retirement age in July 2011, and again in December 2012.
If none of those things happen in March, would the third consecutive failure of this prediction shake your confidence at all?
No. They just keep on trying. And this time they have a full court press in the financial media and the infotainment that masquerades as news in this country.
No.
So, no matter how many times the same thing happens, it won’t influence your opinion.
OK. Gotta love that reality-based community.
When did I say this in 2011? I did say it last month when Obama offered it to Boehner on a platter. And that fight is not over, just postponed to March. March is not a new fight, just another round of the December fight.
Where “…on a platter” means “as part of a proposal that Boehner could never accept.”
Republicans are in a dreamworld. They must be broken.
Thank you. The Taliban has no equivalent of the Japanese Emperor who can go it’s over.
The Dummycrats should just let them pass a bill w/ approximately $3 trillion in cuts. the resulting unemployment and collapse of the economy may be the only thing to focus reality on the American public.